The cause of the fly tipping epidemic hitting our area is the short-sighted decision makers in Weeley and Chelmsford.

Their thoughtless rulings as what can, and cannot, be deposited at sites can only encourage folk to take the easy option.

To arrive at the Dovercourt tip to be greeted with: “You can’t leave that here, mate, you’ll have to go to Clacton or Colchester” offers no encouragement to do the right thing.

This, and the banning of car-derived-vans and four wheeled trailers, is no incentive to act correctly.

If those in authority were to consider how others resolve the problem, they would find other communities go out of their way to encourage folk to act responsibly.

The city of Karlsruhe, Germany, population 308,000 tell us “every Karlsruhe household has the opportunity to have their bulky waste collected free of charge, twice a year”.

Tendring Council, population 145,000, tells us “please call Veolia direct on 01255 431620 for the current charge”. A wait of over five minutes, a further put-off.

Surely the cost of employing expensive contractors to collect fly-tipped rubbish on a case to case basis is far higher than having an organised collection a couple of times a year?

The sooner our local rulers realise the folly of their ways the sooner the local population will avoid tripping over dumped rubbish at every corner they turn.

Jim Truscott

Harwich